Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk with blunt admission on what has cost his form
As quoted by Daily Mail, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk has admitted that he may play a lot of games in the first half of the season, leading to the loss of his best form.
The Dutch international almost played every club game in the first half of the campaign and started every World Cup fixture too. Upon return, he picked up a hamstring injury in early January that kept him out of action for six weeks.
Van Dijk’s form has been a subject of greater discussion since August. After returning from a serious ACL injury in the summer of 2021, he played 51 games and over 4,500 minutes as Liverpool took part in every game and went so close to winning the quadruple. Following that, there was a quick turnaround for this season due to the mid-season World Cup.
Having very little rest and expecting himself to be at his best every time has cost the 31-year-old. Here’s what he said (h/t Daily Mail):
“Coming back from the knee [ACL] injury, I played all the Premier League games, I think, because everybody wants to be out there – I want to be out there.
“When it’s game day I want to play. I’ll do everything possible to play. But I could have also thought before the World Cup: “Let’s rest a little bit in order to be ready”. But I didn’t because I want to play and I want to be influential for this football club because I love this club.
“‘I work each and every day to be successful for this club. But it caught up with me unfortunately, my body, I’m not a robot, and I think going into the World Cup, having the World Cup, and then doing nothing for a week and coming back it was maybe not the right decision.”
As much as him missing six weeks of action earlier this year wasn’t ideal, it might have worked out well for the player.
As mentioned above, van Dijk hasn’t had much rest since returning from such a serious injury (thanks to Jordan Pickford). So these six weeks must have been good for him to recover those muscles and also have some time off from the elite sport to get his thinking right.
The Dutchman looked somewhere close to his best in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday. If he continues that form, we can expect the team to finish fourth in the league before a much-anticipated rebuild in the summer.
More Liverpool News:
- Liverpool consider Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante for the summer
- Transfer News: Liverpool eye Wolverhampton Wanderers centre-back Max Kilman
- Real Madrid eye Liverpool transfer target Josko Gvardiol
Sometimes, we over-analyse a player and forget the human side of things. It is good to see van Dijk opens up on the factors that have hindered his best form. We hope to see him performing consistently soon.
